SPORTSBIZ -- KEVIN KLEPS

Some of these NCAA tournament games are incredibly exciting, but ...

Blog Entry: March 25, 2013 11:19 AM | Author: KEVIN KLEPS

If you are a basketball junkie, there is a good chance the first four days of the NCAA tournament (sorry, we still don't consider the play-in games the true start of March Madness) are among the most cherished on your sports calendar.

The office pools and (often illegal) gambling magnify the interest, giving even the most casual fans a vested interest in a round of 64 game between Marquette and Davidson.

It's also included a ton of blowouts — so many, in fact, that it makes you wonder if the NCAA/NBA's silly one-and-done rule, which has resulted in many of the elite college programs being dominated by stud freshmen, has hindered one of the best events in all of sports.

Fifty-two of the tournament's 67 games are in the books.

Only 11 of the contests (21.1%) have been decided by five points or fewer, and a whopping 32 games (61.5%) have included double-digit victories.

Twenty of the 52 victories (38.5%) have been by 15 points or more, and 13 (25%) have been wins by at least 20 points.

Compare that total to 2012, and the differences are jarring.

Last year, 16 of the first 52 games were decided by five points or fewer (five more than 2013), and there were nine fewer double-digit victories at this stage of the tournament (23).

The 2012 tournament still had its share of lopsided games — 15 of the first 52 games were decided by 15 points or more — but this version of March Madness has been much worse in that regard.

Entering the Sweet 16 last year, only six games had been decided by at least 20 points (seven fewer than 2013), and the round of 32 featured six games that were won by four points or fewer.

Saturday and Sunday, the average margin of victory in the 16 games was 12.1 points.

Half of the contests were decided by at least 12 points, and six of the 16 were blowouts (victories by 16 points or more).

What does it all mean?

Let's hope not much.

There is more parity than ever before, which is a good thing.

There also seems to be worse officiating (never a good thing), coaches who insist on controlling every possession (the last two minutes of any game that isn't a blowout have turned into an endless parade of timeouts) and teams that change so much from year to year that the quality of play is negatively affected.

Will we stop watching?

Of course not.

Will we stop thinking the best four days on the sports calendar begin on a Thursday in late March?

Big things indeed

My terrible predictions last Monday aside, many of us expected big things from the Big Ten this year. But we might not have anticipated the conference would be this good in a tournament that has already knocked out one top seed, one No. 2 seed, one No. 3 and a pair of No. 4 seeds.

The Big Ten came within a missed upset bid by Illinois on Sunday night — the seventh-seeded Illini led No. 2 Miami, 55-54, until Shane Larkin made a 3-pointer with a minute remaining — of matching history.

In 2009, the Big East had a tournament-record five teams reach the Sweet 16. The conference had three No. 1 seeds that year — Louisville, Connecticut and Pittsburgh. Two of its clubs made the Final Four — UConn and Villanova (a No. 3 seed) — but both failed to advance to the national championship game.

This year, the Big Ten is 10-3 in the NCAA tournament, and has a No. 1, No. 2, No. 3 and No. 4 seed in the Sweet 16 (Indiana, Ohio State, Michigan State and Michigan, respectively).

The conference's only loss in the round of 64 was by fifth-seeded Wisconsin, and its four remaining teams are in different regions, which could make for a very interesting setup in the Final Four in Atlanta on April 6.

All of the Big Ten teams that have reached the Elite Eight since 2006 have advanced to the Final Four. The caveat: Only four squads from the conference have made the Elite Eight in that seven-tournament span.

This year, the Big Ten is considered the favorite in two Sweet 16 contests (Indiana vs. Syracuse and Ohio State vs. Arizona), and Michigan State's matchup with Duke can almost be considered a toss-up.

Ohio State and Indiana would also be Vegas' picks to reach the Final Four in their respective regions, adding more optimism to the Big Ten's odds of ending its 13-year national championship drought.

Readers are solely responsible for the content of the comments they post here. Comments are subject to the site's terms and conditions of use and do not necessarily reflect the opinion or approval of Crain's Cleveland Business. Readers whose comments violate the terms of use may have their comments removed or all of their content blocked from viewing by other users without notification. Comments may be used in the print edition at editorial discretion.